DOCSLIB.ORG

Deconstructing the Sykes-Picot Myth: Frontiers, Boundaries, Borders and the Evolution of Ottoman Territoriality

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Deconstructing the Sykes-Picot Myth: Frontiers, Boundaries, Borders and the Evolution of Ottoman Territoriality All Azimuth ISSN: 2146-7757 (Print) Deconstructing the Sykes-Picot Myth: Frontiers, Boundaries, Borders and the Evolution of Ottoman Territoriality Ali Murat Kurşun To cite this article: Ali Murat Kurşun, “Deconstructing the Sykes-Picot Myth: Frontiers, Boundaries, Borders and the Evolution of Ottoman Territoriality,” All Azimuth 0, no. 0 (2019): 1-22, doi: 10.20991/allazimuth.541258. Published Online: 29 March 2019 doi: 10.20991/allazimuth.541258 All Azimuth V0, N0, 2019, 1-22 Deconstructing the Sykes-Picot Myth: Frontiers, Boundaries, Borders and the Evolution of Ottoman Territoriality Ali Murat Kurşun Aberystwyth University Abstract This study aims to evaluate the emergence of the Sykes-Picot order and deconstruct its mythologization by proposing an evolutionary assessment of border understanding. This study addresses the following primary research questions: How did the interplay of domestic, regional, and international developments lay the groundwork for the formation of the Sykes-Picot territorial order? How was the administrative structure and regional divisions before the Sykes-Picot agreement and to which border categorizations did these structures correspond? Was the Sykes-Picot agreement the only international intervention that affected the borders of the region or were there other international interventions before the Sykes-Picot agreement? This study argues that the history of Middle Eastern border formation is not only an international one but also involves many aspects that have not widely been taken into consideration. In doing so, this paper adopts a critical historical perspective to analyze the evolution of Middle Eastern borders. This paper proposes a three-tracked evolutionary analytical framework (frontiers, boundaries, borders) to analyze the emergence of borders and applies it to the emergence of Ottoman territoriality. This study concludes that the Sykes-Picot agreement is only one, complementary part of a long process in the emergence of Middle Eastern geopolitics. Keywords: Ottoman territoriality, Sykes-Picot Agreement, Middle Eastern borders, border studies 1. Introduction In November 1915, Mark Sykes, advisor to British Secretary of State for War Lord Kitchener, and French former consul in Beirut François Georges Picot were tasked by their respective governments to craft an acceptable post-war partition map for the Middle East. Keeping all the interests and considerations of their governments in mind, Mark Sykes and François Georges Picot reached an agreement in January 1916 about the division of the Ottoman Arab territories, and with Russia’s approval in May 1916, Sykes and Picot finalized their agreement for establishing zones of influence in the region.1 Although the terms agreed on by Sykes and Picot and exchanged by the two governments did not turn into a real agreement and were ultimately further modified by other arrangements, they were highly instrumental in influencing the current borders of the Middle Eastern states. Ali Murat Kurşun, PhD Candidate, Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth University, UK. Email: alimuratkursun@ gmail.com. 1 Eugene Rogan, “A Century After Sykes-Picot,” Cairo Review, 2015, 102, https://cairoreview-b23.kxcdn.com/wp-content/ uploads/2015/10/CR19-Rogan.pdf. Received: 05.09.2018 Accepted: 01.02.2019 1 All Azimuth A. M. Kurşun The explanations and recommendations about the post-Arab Spring Middle Eastern order have been primarily constructed upon the differing narratives of the Sykes-Picot arrangements. While the overwhelming bulk of the discussions blamed the Sykes-Picot order as the main source of the contemporary quagmire in which the Middle East struggles, the nascent actors of the post-Arab Spring chessboard have also asserted their commitment to wiping out the traces of the legacy of the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement. The Sykes-Picot metaphor has incrementally become firmly associated with almost all the geopolitical predicaments the Middle Eastern states have had to face. Behind the emergence of the Sykes-Picot myth as a springboard for these debates and analyses lays a two-fold argumentation about the order believed to be established by the same agreement. The first part involves problematizing Sykes-Picot as having drawn “artificial” borders dividing societies that were once united, into different political structures. The second part stresses the method the Sykes-Picot agreement followed rather than its consequences, and argues that it was a “top-down” implementation of territorial arrangements that failed to take local realities into consideration. Departing from the above arguments, a recently emerged popular literature has started to challenge this one-dimensional perception about the formation of the modern Middle Eastern borders by arguing that there is not only the international aspect embodied in the Sykes- Picot agreement but rather there is the combination of a series of domestic, regional and international factors that together set the ground for the formation of the modern Middle Eastern territorial order. However, despite these recent popular studies’ positive steps in revealing the historical continuity of the interplay between local, regional and international factors, they are mostly either specific case studies that chronologically analyze the historical evolution of specific Middle Eastern borders from a historical perspective, or speculative essays that do not provide deeper insights.2 Against this backdrop, it seems to be relevant to delve into the historical interplay between domestic, regional and international factors that actually constitute the background of the formation of the Sykes-Picot order from a theoretical and historical perspective to understand the validity of the above-mentioned arguments. This study argues that it is not only the Sykes-Picot Agreement that formed the geopolitical order of the modern Middle East but rather both the domestic and other regional and international arrangements that had long before started to pave the way for the formation of the modern Middle Eastern borders, leaving the Sykes-Picot Agreement as one of the subsequent phases of the evolution. Departing from this hypothesis, this study mainly addresses the following primary research questions: How did the interplay of the array of domestic, regional, and international developments lay the groundwork for the formation of the Sykes-Picot territorial order? 2 Pınar Bilgin, “Thinking Postcolonially about the Middle East: Two Moments of Anti-Eurocentric Critique” (Center for Mellemoststudier, June 2016); Pinar Bilgin, “What Is the Point about Sykes–Picot?,” Global Affairs 2, no. 3 (May 26, 2016): 355–59, doi: 10.1080/23340460.2016.1236518; Nick Danforth, “Stop Blaming Colonial Borders for the Middle East’s Problems,” The Atlantic, September 11, 2013, http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/09/stop-blaming-colonial-borders-for-the- middle-easts-problems/279561/; Adam Garfinkle, “The Fall of Empires and the Formation of the Modern Middle East,” Orbis 60, no. 2 (2016): 204–16, doi: 10.1016/j.orbis.2016.02.001; Rashid Khalidi, “The Persistence of the Sykes–Picot Frontiers in the Middle East,” London Review of International Law 4, no. 2 (July 2016): 347–57, doi: 10.1093/lril/lrw019; Elias Muhanna, “Iraq and Syria’s Poetic Borders,” The New Yorker, August 13, 2014, http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/iraq-syria-poetic-imagination; Marina Ottaway, “Learning from Sykes-Picot,” Middle East Program Occasional Paper Series (Washington, DC: Wilson Center, 2015), https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/learning-sykes-picot; David Siddhartha Patel, “Repartitioning the Sykes-Picot Middle East? Debunking Three Myths,” Middle East Brief (Crown Center for Middle East Studies, Brandeis University, November 2016), https://www.brandeis.edu/crown/publications/meb/MEB103.pdf; Gareth Stansfield, “The Remaking of Syria, Iraq and the Wider Middle East,” RUSI, July, 2013, https://rusi.org/sites/default/files/201307_bp_the_remaking_of_syria_iraq_and_the_wider_ middle_east_final.pdf. 2 Sykes-Picot Myth... What was the nature of the administrative structure and regional divisions before the Sykes- Picot Agreement and to which border categorizations did these structures correspond? Was the Sykes-Picot Agreement the only international intervention that affected the borders of the region or were there other international interventions before the Sykes-Picot agreement? To explore these questions, this paper adopts a critical historical perspective in analyzing the evolution of the Middle Eastern borders. In doing so, this paper proposes an evolutionary analytical framework to analyze the emergence of borders by looking at the process from the perspectives of frontiers, boundaries, and borders. In this regard, this study attempts to contribute to the ongoing literature about the geopolitics of the Middle East and particularly the Sykes-Picot myth by putting a border studies perspective at the core of its narrative. The first section of this study will evaluate the theoretical/definitional discussions regarding the borders and will put them into an evolutionary perspective. The second section will delve into the evolution of Ottoman territoriality from a border studies perspective to explain the background of the emergence of modern Middle Eastern geopolitics. The next sections will deconstruct the Sykes-Picot order by looking at the domestic, regional, and international developments that paved the way for the contemporary borders. The concluding
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Christians and Jews in Muslim Societies
    Arabic and its Alternatives Christians and Jews in Muslim Societies Editorial Board Phillip Ackerman-Lieberman (Vanderbilt University, Nashville, USA) Bernard Heyberger (EHESS, Paris, France) VOLUME 5 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/cjms Arabic and its Alternatives Religious Minorities and Their Languages in the Emerging Nation States of the Middle East (1920–1950) Edited by Heleen Murre-van den Berg Karène Sanchez Summerer Tijmen C. Baarda LEIDEN | BOSTON Cover illustration: Assyrian School of Mosul, 1920s–1930s; courtesy Dr. Robin Beth Shamuel, Iraq. This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC 4.0 license, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided no alterations are made and the original author(s) and source are credited. Further information and the complete license text can be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ The terms of the CC license apply only to the original material. The use of material from other sources (indicated by a reference) such as diagrams, illustrations, photos and text samples may require further permission from the respective copyright holder. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Murre-van den Berg, H. L. (Hendrika Lena), 1964– illustrator. | Sanchez-Summerer, Karene, editor. | Baarda, Tijmen C., editor. Title: Arabic and its alternatives : religious minorities and their languages in the emerging nation states of the Middle East (1920–1950) / edited by Heleen Murre-van den Berg, Karène Sanchez, Tijmen C. Baarda. Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2020. | Series: Christians and Jews in Muslim societies, 2212–5523 ; vol.
    [Show full text]
  • Genealogy of the Concept of Securitization and Minority Rights
    THE KURD INDUSTRY: UNDERSTANDING COSMOPOLITANISM IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY by ELÇIN HASKOLLAR A Dissertation submitted to the Graduate School – Newark Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Global Affairs written under the direction of Dr. Stephen Eric Bronner and approved by ________________________________ ________________________________ ________________________________ ________________________________ Newark, New Jersey October 2014 © 2014 Elçin Haskollar ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION The Kurd Industry: Understanding Cosmopolitanism in the Twenty-First Century By ELÇIN HASKOLLAR Dissertation Director: Dr. Stephen Eric Bronner This dissertation is largely concerned with the tension between human rights principles and political realism. It examines the relationship between ethics, politics and power by discussing how Kurdish issues have been shaped by the political landscape of the twenty- first century. It opens up a dialogue on the contested meaning and shape of human rights, and enables a new avenue to think about foreign policy, ethically and politically. It bridges political theory with practice and reveals policy implications for the Middle East as a region. Using the approach of a qualitative, exploratory multiple-case study based on discourse analysis, several Kurdish issues are examined within the context of democratization, minority rights and the politics of exclusion. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews, archival research and participant observation. Data analysis was carried out based on the theoretical framework of critical theory and discourse analysis. Further, a discourse-interpretive paradigm underpins this research based on open coding. Such a method allows this study to combine individual narratives within their particular socio-political, economic and historical setting.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Speaking About Qatar
    SPEAKING ABOUT QATAR: DISCOURSES ON NATIONAL IDENTITY IN POSTCOLONIAL GULF Erick Viramontes Viramontes A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of The Australian National University July, 2018 1 DECLARATION This thesis is an account of research undertaken between January 2014 and July 2018 at the Research School of Social Sciences, School of Politics and International Relations, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. Except where acknowledged in the customary manner, the material presented in this thesis is, to the best of my knowledge, original and has not been submitted in whole or part for a degree in any university. __________________________ Erick Viramontes Viramontes July 2018 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The process that led to this thesis, which began in mid-2013 in the Mexican Altiplano, was full of satisfaction and learning, but also carried with it moments of frustration, difficulty and despair. For this reason, its completion would not have been possible without the unconditional support and invaluable advice from many people to whom I will be forever grateful. I would like to express my deepest thanks to the members of my panel, who provided challenging and enriching insights at every step along this long journey. In particular, I would like to thank my primary supervisor, April Biccum, for her emphasis on the theoretical implications of my research, and my advisor Sean Burges, whose comments helped develop my thinking. I would also like to thank James Piscatori and Mathew Gray from the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies, who put their knowledge and expertise on the Middle East at the service of this project, and Sean Foley, who was a visiting fellow at the Center during my time as a Ph.D.
    [Show full text]
  • University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan ® Copyright by Haluk Necdet Goze»* 1967 MODERNISM and TRADITIONALISM in the OTTOMAN Emfrjre 179Q-L£2K
    66-1602 GOZE, Haluk Necdet, 1929- MODERNISM AND TRADITIONALISM IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE 1790-1922. The American University, Ph.D., 1964 Political Science, international law and relations University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan ® Copyright by Haluk Necdet Goze»* 1967 MODERNISM AND TRADITIONALISM IN THE OTTOMAN EMfrjRE 179Q-l£2k by tf’.’j» vNecdet G6ze Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The American University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND ORGANIZATION Signatures of Committee: Chairman: Date: On*? 'tv. Graduate Dean Dates eyK04j H. I4& V l,BRARY AUG o *KASK»CT3HD.c Soo z. tiu TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE ......................................... v CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION .............................. 1 II. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND....................... 10 The Origins of the Turkish People 10 The Seljuk T u r k s ........................ 11 The Rise of the Ottoman Turks ............. 13 The Decline of the Ottoman Empire ......... 15 Ottoman Institutions .................... 16 III. REFORMS OF SULTAN SELIM III AND THE FAILURE OF THE MODERNISTS......... 31 Early efforts at reform ................ 31 The Reforms of Sultan Selim ......... 37 The Reform of Sultan Mahmud I I ........... 41 Social and Economic Problems • 46 IV. THE RESHID PASHA REFORMS AND THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN MODERNISTS AND TRADITIONALIST 1839-1876 ......................'......... 60 The 1839 Reshid Pasha Reforms and the Temporary Victory of the Modernists .... 60 The Role of the Ottoman Diplomatic Envoys ••••• 68 ill CHAPTER PAGE The Struggle between Modernists and Traditionalists during the Tanzimat Period 1839-1876 ...................... 71 Economic and Social Problems .. ......... 75 Rise of Nationalism .................... 80 The Role of the Ottoman P r e s s ..........
    [Show full text]
  • The Forgotten Regional Landscape of the Sykes-Picot Agreement
    LOEVY MACRO (DO NOT DELETE) 4/2/2018 10:42 AM RAILWAYS, PORTS, AND IRRIGATION: THE FORGOTTEN REGIONAL LANDSCAPE OF THE SYKES-PICOT AGREEMENT Karin Loevy ABSTRACT What was the geo-political scale of the Sykes-Picot Agreement of May 1916? What did the British and French mid-level officials who drew lines on its maps imagine as the territorial scope of their negotiations? This Article claims that the Sykes-Picot Agreement cannot be understood strictly as the beginning of a story about territorial division in the Middle East, but also as an end to a story of perceived regional potency. Rather than a blueprint for what would later become the post-war division of the region into artificially created independent states, the Sykes-Picot Agreement was still based on a powerful vision of a broad region that is open for a range of developmental possibilities. Part II of this Article outlines the prewar regional landscape of the agreement in ideas and practices of colonial development in Ottoman territories. Part III outlines the agreement’s war-time regional landscape in inter-imperial negotiations and in the more intimate drafting context, and locates the Sykes-Picot Agreement within a “missed” moment of regional development. I. INTRODUCTION: OPENING TERRITORIAL SPACE ............................ 288 A. Preface: December 1915, at 10 Downing Street .................... 288 B. A Forgotten Regional Landscape ........................................... 290 C. The Sykes-Picot Agreement: A Region Opening-Up for Development ........................................................................... 291 II. PRE-WAR HISTORY OF THE SYKES-PICOT AGREEMENT ................. 296 A. The Context of the Agreement in Pre-war Colonial JSD Program Manager, IILJ Visiting Scholar New York University School of Law; 22 Washington Square North, New York, NY 10001, [email protected].
    [Show full text]
  • Fransiz Diplomat Baron De Bois Le
    T.C SAKARYA ÜN İVERS İTES İ SOSYAL B İLİMLER ENST İTÜSÜ FRANSIZ D İPLOMAT BARON DE BOIS LE COMTE’UN RAPORLARINA GÖRE OSMANLI EKONOM İSİ (1833-1834) YÜKSEK L İSANS TEZ İ Aslı ŞENOL Enstitü Anabilim Dalı : Tarih Enstitü Bilim Dalı: : Yakınça ğ Tarihi Tez Danı şmanı : Yrd. Doç. Dr. Turgut SUBA ŞI TEMMUZ 2012 BEYAN Bu tezin yazılmasında bilimsel ahlak kurallarına uyuldu ğunu, ba şkalarının eserlerinden yararlanılması durumunda bilimsel normlara uygun olarak atıfta bulunuldu ğunu, kullanılan verilerde herhangi bir tahrifat yapılmadı ğını, tezin herhangi bir kısmının bu üniversite veya ba şka bir üniversitede ba şka bir tez çalı şması olarak sunulmadı ğını beyan ederim. Aslı ŞENOL 13.07.2012 ÖNSÖZ Bu çalı şma üç bölümden olu şmaktadır. Birinci bölümde bu çalı şmaya kaynaklık eden Charles Joseph Edmond de Bois le Comte (Baron)’un hayatı ve Mehmet Ali Pa şa’nın Mısır İsyanı döneminde Osmanlı Devleti’ndeki misyonu incelenmi ştir. İkinci bölümde, Charles Joseph Edmond de Bois le Comte’un Do ğu’daki misyonu esnasında tuttu ğu raporlar ı şığında Osmanlı Devleti’ndeki finans sistemi; İmparatorlu ğun gelirleri, giderleri ve İmparatorlukta para darbı üzerinde durulmu ştur. Üçüncü bölümde ise, yine bu raporlar ı şığında Osmanlı Devleti’nde Ticaret; İstanbul, İzmir ve İran Ticareti ve Osmanlı-Fransız ticaretine de ğinilmi ştir. Çalı şmanın temelini olu şturan Baron de Bois le Comte’un raporları, Paris’te bulunan Fransız Dı ş İş leri Bakanlı ğı Ar şivi’nden alınmı ş kaynaklardır. Bu çalı şmada Fransız Dı ş İş leri Bakanlı ğı’ndan alınan raporlardaki bilgiler Türkçeye çevrilerek aktarılırken, bu bilgiler ikinci el kitap ve makale gibi kaynaklardan yararlanarak do ğrulanmı ş ve yahut var ise elde edilen bilgiler arasındaki çeli şkiler ve farklılıklar ortaya koyulmaya çalı şılmı ştır.
    [Show full text]
  • Russian Military Intelligence on Turkey Published by IDC Publishers, 2006
    Finding Aid Russian military intelligence on Turkey Published by IDC Publishers, 2006 • Descriptive summary Creator: Russia. Armiia. Voenno-uchenyĭ arkhiv Title: Russian military intelligence on Turkey Dates (inclusive): 1700-1917 Abstract: Collection contains textual and cartographic materials Languages: Predominantly in Russian and French, also materials in German and English, a few items in Turkish, Italian, Greek, Arabic, Latin and Dutch Extent: 917 [i.e. 919] archival files ; 41 microfilm reels ; digital images available in the IDC Digital Library (www.idc-digilib.nl) Order no.: RIA-4 • Location of Originals Rossiĭskiĭ gosudarstvennyĭ voenno-istoricheskiĭ arkhiv (RGVIA), Moscow. Fond 450. • Scope and Content Documents containing general intelligence on the Turkish army, and on the domestic and foreign policy of the country ; This group consists of dispatches and memorandums from Russian military agents and diplomatic representatives on the domestic political situation in Turkey, Russo-Turkish relations, the strengthening of British influence in Turkey, the organization and state of the Turkish army, fortifications in the Bosporus and Dardanelles, the suppression by Turkish forces of the Druze uprising in Syria in 1852, unrest in Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey’s preparations for wars, and the construction of highways and railways in the country with the involvement of foreign capital. There are some documents of French origin: a plan of the Turkish defensive system in the Black Sea, Bosnia, Albania and Epirus that was submitted by General Vodoncour to Napoleon in 1810; a memorandum from General Guillaume from 1811 on the possibility of invading Turkey via Epirus. Water colors from the late 19th century illustrate the various different uniforms and shoulder-straps worn by the Turkish army.
    [Show full text]
  • The Formation of Iraqi Nationalism Under the British Mandate (1920- 1932)
    THE FORMATION OF IRAQI NATIONALISM UNDER THE BRITISH MANDATE (1920- 1932) A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY PIRIL AKIN IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN THE PROGRAM OF MIDDLE EAST STUDIES DECEMBER 2009 Approval of the Graduate School of Social Sciences Ğ Prof. Dr. Sencer Ayata Director I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Master of Science. Ğ Assoc. Prof. Dr. Recep Boztemur Head of Program This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Science. Ğ Assoc. Prof. Dr. Recep Boztemur Supervisor Examining Committee Members Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ceylan Tokluoğlu (METU, SOC) ğ Assoc. Prof. Dr. Recep Boztemur (METU, HIST) ğ Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mustafa Şen (METU, SOC) ğ I that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work. Name, Last name: Pırıl Akın Signature : iii ABSTRACT THE FORMATION OF IRAQI NATIONALISM UNDER THE BRITISH MANDATE (1920- 1932) Akın, Pırıl MSc. Graduate Program of Middle East Studies Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Recep Boztemur December 2009, 125 pages This thesis examines the development of a national identity and the ideology of nationalism, and the formation of nation-state in Iraq under the British Mandate from 1920 to 1932.
    [Show full text]
  • 20 CIÉPO Symposium
    University of Crete Foundation for Research Department of History and Technology - Hellas and Archaeology Institute for Mediterranean Studies 20th CIÉPO Symposium New Trends in Ottoman Studies Rethymno, Crete, Greece 27 June – 1 July 2012 Organised in collaboration with the Region of Crete, Regional Unit of Rethymno, and the Municipality of Rethymno 1 Organising Committee Gülsün Aksoy-Aivali Antonis Anastasopoulos Elias Kolovos Marinos Sariyannis Honorary Committee Prof. Jean-Louis Bacqué-Grammont (Honorary President, CIÉPO) Prof. Vassilis Demetriades (Honorary Researcher, IMS/FORTH) Prof. Costas Fotakis (President, FORTH) Prof. Christos Hadziiossif (Director, IMS/FORTH) Prof. Katerina Kopaka (Dean, School of Letters, University of Crete) Ms Maria Lioni (Regional Vice Governor of Crete, Rethymno) Mr Giorgis Marinakis (Mayor of Rethymno) Ass. Prof. Socrates Petmezas (Chair, Department of History and Archaeology, University of Crete) Prof. Euripides G. Stephanou (Rector, University of Crete) Prof. Michael Ursinus (President, CIÉPO) Prof. Elizabeth A. Zachariadou (Honorary Researcher, IMS/FORTH) Symposium Secretariat Eleni Sfakianaki Katerina Stathi Technical Support Alexandros Maridakis Symposium Assistants Marilena Bali Angeliki Garidi Michalis Georgellis Despoina Giannakaki Myrsini Kavalari Georgia Korontzi Alexandra Kriti Christos Kyriakopoulos Giannis Lambrakis Iordanis Panagiotidis Stelios Parlamas Stamatia Partsafa Ioanna Petroulidi Milan Prodanović Panagiota Sfyridaki 2 Panel Abstracts 1. Panels are listed in alphabetical order on the basis of the family name of the panel leader. 2. The names of the other panelists of each panel are listed by order of presentation. 3. The panels’ paper abstracts are listed together with the abstracts of the independent papers in the next section. 3 A. Nükhet Adıyeke (başkan), Nuri Adıyeke, Mehmet Ali Demirbaş, Melike Kara (Wed 27, 16.30, r.
    [Show full text]
  • 83 Ali Murat Kurşun Aberystwyth University Deconstructing The
    All Azimuth V9, N1, 2020, 83-104 Deconstructing the Sykes-Picot Myth: Frontiers, Boundaries, Borders and the Evolution of Ottoman Territoriality Ali Murat Kurşun Aberystwyth University Abstract This study aims to evaluate the emergence of the Sykes-Picot order and deconstruct its mythologization by proposing an evolutionary assessment of border understanding. This study addresses the following primary research questions: How did the interplay of domestic, regional, and international developments lay the groundwork for the formation of the Sykes-Picot territorial order? How was the administrative structure and regional divisions before the Sykes-Picot agreement and to which border categorizations did these structures correspond? Was the Sykes-Picot agreement the only international intervention that affected the borders of the region or were there other international interventions before the Sykes-Picot agreement? This study argues that the history of Middle Eastern border formation is not only an international one but also involves many aspects that have not widely been taken into consideration. In doing so, this paper adopts a critical historical perspective to analyze the evolution of Middle Eastern borders. This paper proposes a three-tracked evolutionary analytical framework (frontiers, boundaries, borders) to analyze the emergence of borders and applies it to the emergence of Ottoman territoriality. This study concludes that the Sykes-Picot agreement is only one, complementary part of a long process in the emergence of Middle Eastern geopolitics. Keywords: Ottoman territoriality, Sykes-Picot Agreement, Middle Eastern borders, border studies 1. Introduction In November 1915, Mark Sykes, advisor to British Secretary of State for War Lord Kitchener, and French former consul in Beirut François Georges Picot were tasked by their respective governments to craft an acceptable post-war partition map for the Middle East.
    [Show full text]
  • Creation and Collapse: the British Indian Empire in Mesopotamia Before and After World War I
    Creation and Collapse: The British Indian Empire in Mesopotamia Before and After World War I Austin McCleery Department of History Honors Thesis University of Colorado Boulder Defense: April 2nd, 2018 Committee: Primary Advisor: Susan Kingsley Kent, Department of History Outside Advisor: Nancy Billica, Department of Political Science Honors Representative: Matthew Gerber, Department of History 1 Acknowledgements First and foremost, I am deeply indebted to Professor Kent for her expertise, guidance, and willingness to work with my schedule. Her support and immense knowledge made this paper far less daunting and ultimately far more successful. I would also like to extend my deepest gratitude to Professor Gerber for leading me through the thesis process and helping me switch topics when my initial choice fell through. To Professor Billica, thank you for encouraging my interests beyond this topic and offering invaluable career advice and much appreciated edits. Finally, to all my friends and family who listened to me talk about this thesis for almost two years, your patience and support played a huge role in getting me to the end. To those who spent innumerable hours in the library with me, I greatly appreciated the company. 2 Abstract This paper explores British India and the Government of India’s involvement in Mesopotamia [modern-day Iraq] before, during, and after World War I. By bringing these regions together, this study challenges prior assumptions that India and the Middle East exist in entirely distinct historic spheres. Instead I show that the two regions share close, interrelated histories that link both the British Empire and the changing colonial standards.
    [Show full text]
  • A Recent Story of Ngos in Northern Iraqi Kurdistan G´Erardgautier, Giorgio Francia
    CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Archive Ouverte a LUniversite Lyon 2 A Recent Story of NGOs in Northern Iraqi Kurdistan G´erardGautier, Giorgio Francia To cite this version: G´erardGautier, Giorgio Francia. A Recent Story of NGOs in Northern Iraqi Kurdistan. Hu- manitaire, enjeux, pratiques, d´ebats,2005, pp. 40-49. <hal-00676669> HAL Id: hal-00676669 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00676669 Submitted on 5 Mar 2012 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destin´eeau d´ep^otet `ala diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publi´esou non, lished or not. The documents may come from ´emanant des ´etablissements d'enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche fran¸caisou ´etrangers,des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou priv´es. A Recent Story of NGOs in Northern Iraqi Kurdistan Giorgio Francia 1 and Gérard Gautier 2 Abstract In comparison to the other areas of Iraq, Kurdistan Region, in the northern part of the country, witnessed very specific working conditions for NGOs present there, due to its specific political situation as a de facto independent area. This paper tries to describes these conditions, vastly different from the others parts of Iraq. More specifically, after a short historical background, this paper deals with the period going from the 1991 “Kuweit War” to the present, with a focus on the period from 1996 to the US-UK intervention of March 2003.
    [Show full text]